Wow, half way through the scheduled Jump Manual program so far. Man, that went faster then I was expecting. Overall I've had mixed feelings with the Jump Manual. I really think it needs an update. Hopefully 2.0 is still coming out sometime soon. But overall I have really enjoy it. My results have been decent, not as much as I was hoping, but I am still happy with what I have achieved so far. I'm definitely going to continue the program and go even harder this last 6 weeks because I think results are really going to start stacking up now.
I think I have been stressing the loosing weight thing way too much that it may have had an impact on the rest of my training. I think it has to do with the fact that for the last 2 years of my life it's all been about lose weight, lose weight, lose weight, so when it came time to go for gains, it's been hard to wrap my head around. So no more focusing on weight, I will be aware of what I'm eating and my weight overall, but not stressing about it.
One thing I have really neglected talking about in this blog is my strength and explosion days. (specifically squats) I mention I did them, but never mention specifics, so I think I will do a post every Saturday/Sunday to talk about that briefly as well. I've been bumping up my squat #'s about 10 lbs per week. Didn't do hang cleans cause my elbow is still bothering me.
My squats were 1x8 @ 215, but it was too easy so I bumped it up to 2x8 @ 225 for the next sets. I raised it up to 1x8 255 for the 4th set. I meant to do 245, but added the numbers wrong. For the pyramid set I did 5 @ 245, 6 @ 235 and then 8 @ 205. my pyramid set was messed up because I kept miss counting the weights, haha. But I really focused on reaching that 90 degrees and exploding up on the first 3 sets. I'm going to try to get some video of this next time.
I used the squat rack with the guide bars for this workout because all the other racks were full. How do you guys feel about that one? It's better then the leg press cause I feel like I am pushing up real weights, but I'm locked into that position so I don't have to worry about falling backwards, so I wonder if I'm not working all the muscles I could be with a normal free squat.
Played basketball twice this week. After the first game, when I am warmed up, I always do my jump tests at the rim. I've felt really good about my jumping on the court. I'm not jumping a ton higher, but now I can do it every day, every time I try. Today I was able to get the top of my palm over the rim on a two step two foot jump. maybe an inch or 2 higher than the video in an earlier post, but not running and off one foot. I also have been trying to touch this rim with two hand and off the two step I was just about an inch short on 3 attempts which is the closest I have been in a long time. I really want to grab the rim with 2 hands again.
So I really don't think the Jump Manual is for one footed jumpers. I used to be a one footer, but as you can see in the last paragraph and when I post my vertec numbers that I have converted to more of a two footed power jumper now. Jumping off one foot just feels wrong and I can't get very high anymore, it's actually getting lower. So that's interesting. My numbers are back up overall though. So I am feeling pretty good.
All these numbers are tested jumping at the same time of day on the same day each week and off the exact same surface.
End Week 5 End Week 6
Standing: 25" Standing: 25.5"
One Step: 27" One Step: 28"
Running: 28" Running: 28.5"
It's amazing to me that my standing vert is only 3 inches lower then my running when I hear some people say they have a 7" difference between the two. Does that mean that my running approach may be bad? Or just how I am because in high school my standing was about 35-37, but my running was just over 40 (just a guess, never actually measured) so not much difference there either. Not that it's an issue, just think it's interesting and if it is my form I need to work on it.
Overall improvement so far (6 weeks)
Standing: +0.5"
One Step: +1"
Running: +1.5"
These numbers don't do justice to the difference I'm noticing at the rim now, maybe I need to test at a better time of day. I test at the rim at about noon, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I test at the vertec at about 11:30pm - midnight on Wednesdays after working for at least 12 hrs. But they have always been at the same time off the exact same surface.
Sorry for the long post. I may have to start posting more times through out the week to make them not so long. Thanks for reading.
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